The night was heavy. To avoid any unforeseen complications, a ghostly figure appeared silently in a corner of the Kaguya clan's new territory.
This was their newly established graveyard. The smell of freshly turned earth mixed with the faint, metallic scent of blood.
"The Mizukage's so-called 'mercy' certainly saved me a lot of trouble," Night muttered, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold sneer.
Having confirmed no one was around, he summoned the System and spoke coldly.
"Pawn."
> [Scan complete. Discovering pawnable items:]
> [Ding! Kaguya Bloodline Corpse (Intact) x33... Valuation: 80 Points/Body]
> [Ding! Kaguya Clansman Corpse (Damaged) x15... Valuation: 50 Points/Body]
"Confirm."
Without a sound, as if a breeze had swept through the graveyard, the bodies within the graves vanished instantly, leaving behind empty coffins.
From the outside, it looked as if nothing had happened.
> [Current Pawn Points: 6260]
Night noted that pawning a living Kaguya was worth 100 points, while a corpse was only 80—the same rate as the Uzumaki clan. The lost 20 points likely accounted for the soul. Since the previous battlefield was right under the Mizukage's office, he couldn't get close enough to harvest the souls fresh.
Having pawned so many Kaguya bodies, the System Store naturally refreshed with an upgrade for the Kaguya bloodline.
> [Redeemable Item:]
> [Kaguya Sage Bone — Cost: 2000 Points]
Looking at his skyrocketing points, Night wasn't satisfied yet.
A clan as paranoid and crazy as the Kaguya was destined to be swept into the dustbin of history. He was just giving them a little push.
---
He slipped silently into the Yuki clan's territory. Awakening Ice Release was difficult for the Yuki clan, so most of their members were effectively civilians or ordinary ninjas with just a prestigious name. This gave Night an opening.
Avoiding the buildings with powerful chakra signatures, he chose a secluded, vacant house on the edge of the territory that no one visited.
Opening his System list, he found the four living Kaguya ninjas he had pawned earlier and randomly selected one to redeem.
A body appeared before him—vegetative, functioning physiologically but devoid of consciousness.
He dumped the body in the room and placed a concealed Flying Raijin seal on it. Now came the most critical step.
Channeling the power of the Dead Bone Pulse he had redeemed, Night carefully created signs of a fierce struggle on the walls and floor.
Perhaps because the concentration of the Kaguya bloodline in Night's body was so high, it resonated with the unconscious ninja. The bone spikes in the vegetable's body activated involuntarily.
Night was startled for a moment, then realized this made the scene even more convincing. A happy accident.
Next, he channeled his Ice Release chakra, leaving frostbite marks on the victim's body and internal organs.
Once everything was done, he double-checked for any flaws, then vanished from the room as if he had never been there.
---
Noon the next day.
An anonymous letter with messy handwriting appeared in Kento Kaguya's new residence.
There wasn't much text, mostly a rough sketch of a map.
Kento recognized it immediately as the Yuki clan territory. One building on the edge was heavily marked, accompanied by the words: "The Truth About the Missing Clansmen."
Kento was shaken to his core. He couldn't focus on anything all afternoon, consumed by worry and suspicion.
It wasn't until nightfall that he finally made up his mind. Relying on his familiarity with the village layout, he stealthily headed toward the Yuki territory.
There was a small hiccup: Kento's stealth skills were atrocious. He was spotted by a patrolling Chunin assigned by the Mizukage almost as soon as he left his district.
Just as the Chunin was about to report it, Night—who was monitoring from the shadows—stepped in and eliminated the guard effortlessly with overwhelming force.
Fortunately, Night had anticipated this and set the "crime scene" in the border area. Even with Kento's lackluster skills, he managed to infiltrate and discover the clansman covered in "battle wounds."
Even though the man was in a living-dead state, Kento recognized him instantly. This was one of the clansmen who went missing during the inn explosion.
"I knew it... The Yuki clan... they've gone too far!"
People tend to believe the "truth" they want to see. Kento's eyes turned red instantly.
The signs of struggle in the room and the frostbite on his clansman—everything pointed to the Yuki clan.
They weren't just spying; they were secretly capturing and torturing his people. And if the Mizukage wasn't protecting them, Kento refused to believe they could get away with it.
His heart was already filled with resentment from the drastic fall in his clan's status. Now, the flames of hatred consumed whatever reason he had left.
---
He returned to the clan grounds under the cover of a pitch-black, windy night.
Kento gathered every remaining clansman capable of fighting—those whose hearts were filled with pent-up rage and hatred.
There were no rousing speeches. He simply told them the cold, hard reality of what he had seen.
"The Kaguya clan cannot tolerate such humiliation. The Mizukage is unjust; the Yuki clan is oppressive. We shall become vengeful ghosts and make them remember the Kaguya's wrath for eternity."
Kento spoke calmly. He left behind all the Genin-level clansmen and the children to serve as seeds for the future.
The remaining few dozen core warriors, like moths flying into a flame, set off toward the Yuki territory with a resolve to die.
Although consumed by hatred, Kento hadn't completely lost his mind.
He knew this was the Kaguya's swan song. The goal wasn't victory; it was to make the Yuki pay a terrible price. He wanted to brand the Kaguya clan's curtain call into Mist history in the bloodiest way possible.
"Remember! Our primary targets are the Yuki elites who have awakened their Ice Release and their bloodline descendants. In the core area... leave no one alive." Kento issued his final, cruel order.
The night was their best cover. Perhaps because they were in their own territory, the Yuki clan wasn't overly vigilant. Most ninjas who realized what was happening were pinned to walls by bone spikes before they could raise the alarm.
It wasn't until a Yuki Jonin was ambushed that a warning finally rang out. Under the cover of Ice Release, he screamed:
"Enemy attack! It's those Kaguya lunatics!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he was entangled by three fearless Kaguya ninjas. They completely abandoned defense, attacking relentlessly, trading injury for injury, life for life.
Even with their bodies riddled with ice senbon, they drove their bone blades into their opponent's chest. This suicidal fighting style took down a large number of Yuki elites.
Similar scenes played out all over the Yuki territory. Locked doors were smashed open, and cold bone spikes were stained with the blood of the innocent.
The Yuki clan was caught completely off guard. Accustomed to controlling the battlefield with Ice Release from a distance, they had never faced such insane, reckless close-quarters combat.
The targeted slaughter of their bloodline kin threw them into chaos.
The shrill sounds of turmoil shattered the peace of the Hidden Mist Village.
When the Third Mizukage arrived with a large force of ANBU elites, what greeted him was a scene straight out of hell.